Greek Gov’t Aims to Cut Funding for Golden Dawn

Source: ABCNews

Greece’s government is submitting legislation to Parliament aimed at cutting state funding to the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party, whose leadership was arrested over the weekend on charges of acting as a criminal organization.

Under the legislation being submitted Monday, state funding will be suspended for a party if any members of its leadership or lawmakers are being prosecuted for felonies.

Six Golden Dawn lawmakers, 14 members and two police officers have been arrested, while arrest warrants have been issued for another 10 people.

The government crackdown was sparked by the Sept. 17 fatal stabbing of a Greek man blamed on a Golden Dawn supporter.

The arrests mark the first time since the 1974 restoration of democracy after a military dictatorship that sitting members of a Greek Parliament have been arrested.